My family and I used to live in the Lake Ridge area for roughly 2 years. I've always been ignored or dismissed when I visited this location but I have looked passed it.
When we moved out of the area (down the street, basically), I took my 2 yr old there for the first time for toddler storytime- we have been to other locations and loved it.
Before storytime started and all of the kids were playing with puzzles and toys provided by the library, Ms. Lynne Casey walked directly up to my son and I (who were in the back) and said "Those toys need to be put away. Now. It's storytime." This comment seemed overly directed to just us so I asked her if she was going to ask the other children to put their toys away as well. She deflected and reiterated that her assistant was supposed to have everything put away already and we needed to put the toys away as "it's storytime".
I am not one to jump to "racism" as an excuse but as the 5 other families in the library were caucasian, I can't help to think that my African American son and I were targeted by Ms. Lynne.This is unacceptable and I will for sure never visit this location again. This is a huge disappointment as the library is a nostalgic and comforting place for us to visit. read more